The trip to Western Kansas was uneventful, and I enjoyed the 24 or so hours I spent there. I stopped to see a couple of friends in Oakley, and enjoyed the day at Goodland with others that I’ve known, as well as some new friends I just met that day.
It is good to have relationships like that, where one can know that even though miles and time separate people, there is a bond there that transcends those barriers. Such are the friends in Western Kansas I saw Saturday. I know that today, as they go about their work, they too have good feelings and rejoice at the opportunity they had to renew friendship with me. That makes me feel special, loved, and accepted.
I’ll tell a couple of things about the trip in future blogs, but for now will just tell you that I’m home, have mostly recovered from the drive, and am trying to plan out my day and my week.
The Union Pacific 844 “Big Boy” steam engine and its consist will be in Topeka around noon today. I plan to go to the Great Overland Station and watch it come in and leave. At 907,980 pounds and 114 feet long, with a water capacity of over 25,000 gallons and fuel capacity of over 6,000 gallons, it is the largest active steamer that I know of. It’s wheels are 6 feet, 8 inches high and its steam cylinders are over 2 feet in diameter with a 32 inch stroke. It burns #5 fuel oil, by the way, not coal.
It’s on a publicity tour of the Union Pacific system, and is coming in Eastbound from Denver, by way of Sharon Springs, Oakley, Hays, Salina, and Manhattan. It will turn around here at a wye track just outside of Topeka, and go back Westbound toward the southwest through Herington, Hutchinson, Pratt, and Liberal (the old Rock Island Kansas City to Tucumcari line).
Happy steaming, folks!!
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